All of my IRL friendships are based around activities - we play games together, we volunteer together, etc. When someone moves away and we try to keep the friendship going, it always just sputters out after a few weeks or months. It just seems to devolve into small-talk / catch-ups that neither of us are really interested in (I don’t mind small-talk too much, but it can’t be 100% of any meaningful relationship).
So: What is the point of a long-distance friendship for two people who have no plans to live locally again? What am I missing?
EDIT: I have close conversations in person that are deep and meaningful, just very rarely over text. Maybe I ought to phone or video call once in a while…
Yes, that sounds like me. I’ve only really had it happen twice where people have come back into my life, but one of them is now my best friend again after I didn’t see or talk to them for years. The other example moved away for about eight years and although we were close (before or after) we did just carry on the same relationship we had before.
In that case, I’m not sure you’re missing anything and I’m not even sure you have a problem to solve here.